The Impact of the Traditional Method of Procurement on the Estimated Cost and Time Efficiency in Building Construction Projects in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Construction projects must be completed on time and under budget through efficient procurement. Construction management literature has often examined how procurement practices affect project performance. Traditional procurement has been criticised as a result. This study examines how conventional procurement methods affect cost estimation and time efficiency in Abuja, Nigeria, building construction projects. A questionnaire and quantitative study were used to collect data. One Hundred and Fifty-Eight (158) questionnaires were administered to the research population, and one hundred and eighteen (118) were retrieved, representing a response rate of 75%. Mean item scores and T-tests were used to analyse importance. All the criteria responsible for the use of traditional methods were deemed moderately significant since they had Mean Scores that were higher than 3.00. The most acceptable benefits associated with the use of the traditional method included checks and balances, which was ranked first and had a Mean Score of 3.28. The impacts of the traditional method of procurement ranged from "optimization of performance metrics including cost and time" (mean = 3.45), which is the highest ranked, to "budget slippage and cost overrun" (mean = 3.05, which is the least ranked. To get the most significant impacts of the traditional method of procurement based on the mean score, a threshold of 3.00 was set. As a result, all the impacts of the traditional method of procurement on the estimated cost and time efficiency of building construction projects were above 3.00 and considered significant. The major recommendation from the study was that to improve the performance of traditional methods of procurement concerning their impact on estimated cost and time efficiency, contracting and consulting firms and all other relevant stakeholders should develop a mechanism that includes all the strategies identified.